North Dakota

Denver snapped a three-game winless streak, defeating Nebraska-Omaha for the first time this season, 4-1.

Freshman goaltender Evan Cowley stopped 33 shots for Denver in just his second start of the season. Cowley, like senior DU goalie Sam Brittain, is a fourth-round NHL Draft pick of the Florida Panthers, though three years apart (2010 for Brittain, 2013 for Cowley). But with Brittain a senior, Cowley has deferred to him most of the year. This game gave Denver fans a glimpse of the future, and it helped the Pioneers leapfrog two teams into fourth place.

The Pioneers, who never trailed, scored in each of the three periods — Nolan Zajac, Trevor Moore and Matt Marcinew.

The win also allowed the Pioneers to avoid losing four games to the same opponent during the regular season for the first time since 1999-00 when they dropped four games against Colorado College.

"It was a concerted effort for 60 minutes. If we had the third period we had tonight in the previous two games, never mind the goal production, I mean the effort, I think we are sitting in first place,” Denver coach Jim Montgomery said. “The good thing is we are learning and continuing to progress and hopefully those lessons learned we can still put a run together.”

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Jonny Brodzinski scored with 1:49 left in regulation to give St. Cloud State a 4-3 win over Minnesota-Duluth and four-game season-series sweep. The Huskies remained three points up on North Dakota for first place.

Brodzinski's goal came after he hit the post twice in Friday's game.

“It’s just a great win for us,” Huskies coach Bob Motzko told the St. Cloud Times. “The building was electric. It was the best crowd of the year and we needed to get the roof off the building (with noise) and treat our fans to that game."

Jimmy Murray scored just 30 seconds into the game for St. Cloud, following up his two-goal effort from Friday. The Huskies went up 3-1 before the Bulldogs rallied behind goals from Dominic Toninato and freshman Alex Iafallo.

Ryan Faragher was strong again in net for St. Cloud State, making 38 saves. He played two big games this weekend, one week after being a healthy scratch.

Kalle Kosila set up Brodzinski for the game winner, a one-timer.

“He doesn’t need a lot of time or a lot of room,” Motzko told the Times. “I’ve only been around a couple guys who can shoot the puck like that. We just looked at it (on video) and that was a lot harder than it looked."

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Miami's nightmare season reached a new low Saturday. After struggling, uncharacteristically, with defense and goaltending all season, the RedHawks allowed a season-high nine goals in a 9-2 loss at North Dakota.

Meanwhile, North Dakota's weekend sweep put it in sole possession of second place in the NCHC.

Fourteen players figured in on the scoring, with six of them accumulating multi-point games, paced by Rocco Grimaldi with four points and defenseman Nick Mattson with three.

UND overcame having two goals disallowed in the first eight minutes of the game, both scored by Mark MacMillan. His first was wiped out when he was called for a penalty on his rush to the net in which he caught Miami goalie Ryan McKay in the head with his elbow. MacMillan had what looked like another goal disallowed on a video review at 7:48 when referees ruled his shot never crossed the goal line.

"Didn't seem to matter," UND coach Dave Hakstol said of the disallowed goals. "We were ready to play. We had a great start. It didn't seem to matter what happened last shift. We were ready to play the next shift."

Defenseman Jordan Schmaltz scored at 3:36 to get UND rolling. With a delayed penalty coming on Miami, Schmaltz unleashed a howitzer with a sixth attacker on for UND to notch the first of nine UND goals.

Colton St. Clair knocked a rebound out of mid-air at 6:34, Grimaldi came in alone to score at 8:56 and rookie defenseman Keaton Thompson capped a four-goal opening period for UND at 12:58, the most goals in a period by UND this season.

"We haven't had many third periods where we've been able to go out and play and have fun," Hakstol acknowledged.

North Dakota goaltender Zane Gothberg returned from missing three games with injury to play well, making 27 saves, 14 of them in the last period.